If we have to endure advertising to keep the world spinning, at least make the ad calm enough so I don’t feel like I have to take a tranquilizer after the experience.
Today’s television advertisements yell and flash and scream and tell me about all the bad things that happen when we take the medication they’re screaming about. Why are drug companies allowed to advertise medication? “Here’s a caffeine pill for pep. It’ll give you gas, hair on your palms, and you might get a rash.”
Do like the rest of the world and have a drink.
It’s hard to believe that many TV ads back when I was a kid were 60 seconds long. These days there’s 30 seconds of ad copy jammed into 15 seconds with strobe lights and screaming and things that you won’t believe.
And don’t even get me started on Internet advertising. That’s a whole separate blog post altogether.
I have requested for our Christmas Eve celebration (it’ll be the four of us) some Jeno’s Pizza Rolls or whatever the equivalent is these days. I totally based this request on an ad from 1967.
Archway cookies, half a package already polished off.
It’s been 40 years but I can remember it as clear as if it was yesterday. It was Christmas season 1980. You walked in the front door of the grocery store P&C Foods. Gumball machines straight ahead. To left, a Rite Aid department store. To the right, you stepped on the “magic mat” and the door opened to the P&C Foods grocery store. There was an orange wall to the left and then five checkout counters. Shopping carts on the right. Grab a cart. I push, mom is behind me, my sister trails along. The electronic cash registers are clattering their receipt tape as we pass by, register five, four, three, two, one. Delores was always at register two, Betty was always at register one. Then came register six, an express lane that was never used. A short woman named Anita watched over everything from the courtesy desk that was elevated; the never used express lane was attached to that. The colorful globes indicating the checkout number had been removed and replaced with stickers on the front and side of the cash register. To the right, bird seed and big bags of dog food. Beyond the courtesy desk (which faced into the store, away from the entrance lane), on the left were a few plants and then a little alcove with three walls of bread. Make our way around the alcove, left turn, left turn, on the right were loaves of Italian bread in wax paper. They were marked 79 cents with a purple “BAKERY” price sticker. I loved that bread. Mom would get a loaf. Would Betty or Delores press the “BAKERY” key on the register? Delores usually did, Betty did not, she just hit “GROCERY”. It would be years before scanning would enter into the picture.
Before we turned out of the alcove and into produce (vegetables on the left, fruit on the right), there was a small section of free standing shelves. On those shelves, from top to bottom, Archway cookies!
During the holidays we’d get the Archway Cashew Nougat cookies. Little white cookie delights with pieces of cashews in them. I could eat a whole package myself; the package was a three-quarters height cardboard arrangement with cellophane over the top. How I loved those cookies. They beat the Girl Scouts by a mile.
This past weekend, my husband and I were breezing through Target (in a socially responsible manner) and I saw a small assortment of these Archway cookies on display. The packaging is different, the logo has been modernized, and neither Delores, Betty, nor Anita were at the checkouts. When we departed, we used register 12. There was a glad shield between us and the cashier, the printers did not clack out a receipt, and there was scanning.
The cookies taste similar, but not quite the same. The sweetness is different. It’s stronger than it used to be. The texture of the cookies is the same, but something is different with the balance. Maybe it’s high fructose syrup or something. I don’t want to look. I’m just happy I can taste things. It means our breezing through Target has not been detrimental to our health.
The P&C Foods was one of two chain grocery stores in our little village in Upstate New York, though by December 1980 the Acme Markets had departed the building on the north side of the village and had quickly been replaced by an independent chain called Super Duper. The owner of the new Super Duper in the old Acme building used to be the manager of the P&C. They had Archway cookies as well, but they were last, right before the registers. There were just four cash registers at the Super Duper and they were leftovers from when Acme had the space. They were large and brown and mechanical and made by National. Register three was replaced with an electronic FJay Cash Register shortly after Super Duper took over; the National from the late 1950s apparently had bit the dust. There was no bread alcove, just a wall of bread with no purple “BAKERY” price stickers.
But there were Archway cookies there as well. Better pick an extra package up for the holidays
While I still use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, as well as participate in some groups that are not available anywhere else on the Internet, I absolutely refuse to have the application on my iPhone.
Here’s why. This is a list of all the ways the Facebook iOS app tracks your phone usage, courtesy of the new privacy information available with the latest version of iOS on my Apple iPhone X.
App Privacy
The developer, Facebook, Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. This information has not been verified by Apple. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Back when I was first DJing in small clubs I picked up this 12-inch single in a record store in Boston. I always enjoyed the vibe of this record, and a newer version became a big dance hit in 1992 or 1993. When I was Program Director of WOWZ/WOWB (Wow-FM, “The Beat of Central New York”) and had just discovered Napster, we yanked this version and mixed it into rotation. Don’t tell anyone. It was always fun to play alternative versions of tracks once in a while, though it’s not a very good practice for Top 40 radio.
From 1990, here’s Robin Stone (later Robin S) and “Show Me Love”. This is one of the reasons I enjoy YouTube; folks share the stuff you can’t find elsewhere.
Truman is enjoying the “Cat Fishing” game I bought for my iPad Pro. When he’s looking bored I fire up the game and put the iPad on the floor. It takes him just a moment to notice what’s going on and then he starts scoring points by tapping on the fish. Once in a while he swipes out of the game by mistake and then looks at me like I’m crazy. I try to show him how to swipe back into the game but he isn’t interested, he just wants the fish to come back.
It’s kind of neat that Friskies has come up with a way to entertain our feline friends. I’m not looking forward to the day that he requests his own iPad, though.
We’re not headed back East this year for the holidays (pandemic and all). I was looking through photos from last year’s visit and I still get a kick out of this photo of one of my niece cats. Her name is Skippy June Jones. She’s quite a character.
Another niece we won’t be seeing this year is our niece dog, Bella. Bella has had a rough year; she’s displaced knee caps, and while she was in surgery for that, the vet left her on the heating pad for too long and burned her side badly. She’s been a couple of months in recovery, having to wear a padded collar to keep from digging at her burns. However, reports indicate she’s coming along in her recovery, so I’m happy to hear that. Here’s a picture of Bella from last December.
Bella, December 2019.
Bella gets along with Skippy and their sister, Peach Dot, who hides all the time and stays away from the paparazzi. I’ve only seen Peach Dot once or twice; she tends to keep to herself.
One of the most prevalent results of the pandemic is the closing of schools across the country. When I’m out for a walk, I see the schools in our neighborhood dark, blinds closed, and with little signs of activity. Someone finally changed the billboard in one of the school yards to no longer reference graduation activities this past June.
Private schools in the area are open. One Catholic school is surrounded by neighbors with signs in their windows urging the school to close due to COVID-19, but they still have plenty of kids running around on the playground each day. The German school around the corner hasn’t been using the outside classrooms in tents they were using earlier this school year, it’s been far too cold for young children to be outside for six hours learning their ABCs, but I haven’t seen signs of activity inside the school. Perhaps they’re doing distance learning right now.
Distance learning just isn’t the same thing.
Humans, no matter their creed or color, size or age, or whether they’re an introvert or extrovert, need some sort of contact with other humans. We are all social creatures, even if our needs for certain levels of social contact vary. It’s the exchange of human energy that keeps a society moving forward. It’s difficult for us to accomplish this when we could kill each other by doing the same thing.
A state of affairs ripe for despair.
I’m finally feeling the holiday spirit, albeit in a different manner. I’m not going to risk the health of my family or the folks we see just to exchange some human energy and yuletide greetings. This year will be one of the history books, that’s for sure.
I look forward to hearing the sounds of children playing in the schoolyards again soon.
As the family made Christmas cookies in the kitchen and dining room at Jamie and Chris’ house, I took a few moments to myself with a glass of wine by the fireplace.
We are over at Jamie and Chris’ for annual Christmas cookie formulation. Normally this would be a large gathering but that doesn’t happen in 2020. The four of us are still having a lovely time.
Jamie and Chris have the apartment decked out for the season. It’s festive and perpetuating my search for the spirit.
2020 will definitely be one for the history books. I’m happy that we are still able to have joyful moments.
I know, I’m one of those basic Americans that gets excited when McDonald’s blesses us with the McRib. They’re not quite the same as I remember years ago; there’s a much stronger “ketchup” taste with the barbecue sauce than I remember in the past, though to be fair, I’ve never had a McRib in Chicagoland before.
My husband and I drove to the burbs in search of a McDonald’s in the rain and hints of snow. It was a good way to kick off the weekend. As per the times, we blessed a drive thru with our presence and then found a parking spot to enjoy our meal. We are pros when it comes to eating in the car. With the weather as it was, I found a place to park so we could see flights into O’Hare descend out of the clouds just a few moments before touchdown.
McRibs and airplane watching, yep that’s a snappy Friday night date in my book.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
